Source: From DICTIONARY OF NORTH CAROLINA BIOGRAPHY edited by William S. Powell. Copyright (c) 1979-1996 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. www.uncpress.unc.edu

Ebenezer Emmons (16 May 1799-1 Oct. 1863), geologist, educator,
and physician, was born in Middlefield, a village in western
Massachusetts, of English ancestry. The single son of five
siblings, his parents were farmer Ebenezer and Mary Mack Emmons.
The Reverend Dr. Nathaniel Emmons, an uncle, was a preacher of some
note. At an early age, Emmons's interest in natural science became
apparent. He received most of his training for college from the
Reverend Moses Hallock, a teacher in nearby Plainfield. In 1814 he
enrolled at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., where he
further developed his interest in natural science under Amos Eaton,
who introduced geology into the curriculum at Williams, and Chester
Dewey, who initiated the teaching of chemistry there. Emmons was
graduated in 1818 and the same year married Maria Cone of
Williamstown.

In 1824 Emmons continued his studies in geology at the new
Rensselaer (Polytechnic) Institute, where Eaton had become senior
professor. Also that year he assisted Dewey in producing a
geological map of Berkshire County, Mass. Emmons was graduated from
the institute and published his Manual of Mineralogy and
Geology, a handbook for students, in 1826.

Emmons pursued a vigorous tripartite career for over a decade.
Apparently between his days at Williams and Rensselaer, he had
studied medicine at the Berkshire Medical College and become a
practising physician in Chester, Mass. Nevertheless, he continued
to pursue his work in academic science. In 1828 he returned to
Williams College as lecturer in chemistry while continuing an
extensive medical practice. Two years later he accepted an
appointment as junior professor at Rensselaer, a post he would hold
for nine years. Meanwhile, he began to enlarge the cabinet of
mineralogical and geological specimens at Williams and gave
lectures at the Medical School of Castleton. His position at
Williams was expanded in 1833 to a professorship of natural
science, which he would retain until 1859. In 1838 he was named
professor of chemistry in the Albany Medical College and moved to
Albany; his association with that school, later in obstetrics,
lasted until 1852. During that period he remained on the faculty of
Williams College and traveled annually to Williamstown for his
classes.

In 1836, Emmons became one of the four head geologists of the
new geological survey for the state of New York. His territory
included the northeastern counties, and he acquainted the public
with the Adirondack region and named its principal mountains. He
also named, described, and classified the Potsdam sandstone and
other rocks. Of the latter, Emmons caused a great furor among
geologists when he discovered and proposed the presence of a system
of stratified rocks, which he named the Taconic system, beneath the
Potsdam. The controversy would not subside for decades, and Emmons
reportedly became embittered by the ostracism and ridicule of other
geologists who refused, at times contemptuously, to accept the
Taconic theories. The state published his geological report in
1842, and he took charge of the collections of the geological
survey. He subsequently investigated the agricultural resources of
New York. The work resulted in five volumes (1846-54) dealing
with topography, climate, agricultural geology, the Taconic system,
soils, grains, vegetable products, fruits, and harmful insects in
New York.

In the meantime the legislature of North Carolina in 1851
revived the state geological survey, defunct since 1827. In January
1852 Emmons became its chief, a position he would fill until his
death. Indefatigable, Emmons himself did much of the field, office,
and laboratory work. He guided most of the efforts toward
development of mining, minerals, and agriculture yet undertook very
little work west of the Blue Ridge. The state in 1852 published his
Report of Professor Emmons on His Geological Survey of North
Carolina, which dealt chiefly with the agriculture and geology
of the eastern counties and the coal fields by the Deep River.
Emmons's Geological Report of the Midland [Piedmont] Counties of
North Carolina, which appeared in 1856, contained a discussion
of the geology of the area, a view of the coal fields, and
wide-ranging comments on deposits of gold, silver, copper, lead,
zinc, and manganese. Two years later he produced a lengthy volume
on agriculture of the eastern counties centering around soils,
fertilizers, marls, and fossils found in the marls. In 1860 he
prepared shorter studies on the principles and practice of
agriculture in the state as well as analyses of soil from swamp
lands. Under his direction, botanist Moses Ashley Curtis wrote two
volumes on descriptive botany of the state, and agriculturalist
Edmund Ruffin prepared a description of the agriculture and geology
of lower North Carolina. During these busy years, Emmons also found
time to publish a major book on American Geology and, in
1860, a brief text and manual on the subject. In addition, he
served as private consultant to individuals involved in mining
metals in the state.

The Civil War shattered Emmons's life and much of his work.
Loyal to the Union, he was caught in the South. Anxiety and
separation from friends probably fostered the ill health that
eventually confined him to his home in Brunswick County, where he
died in 1863. He was buried in the City Cemetery, Raleigh, but his
remains later were moved to Albany, N.Y. During the war much of the
work of Emmons and his assistants was lost, including personal
papers (after his death), cabinets of minerals and fossils,
manuscript geological maps, and written manuscripts sufficient for
several volumes. The conflict interrupted the regular work of the
geological survey, and his successor's task was to look after the
manufacture of certain war products.

A persevering and enthusiastic worker and teacher, Emmons
reportedly was an able man with a kindly yet distant disposition. A
religious man, he had served as a deacon in Williamstown. His
portrait is preserved in books by Stuckey and Youmans cited below.
Emmons had a son, Ebenezer, Jr., and two daughters, Amanda
(Conklin) and Mary (Watson).